Another shot from my Eagle archives from 11-08-2009 on the Susquehanna River in Maryland.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

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Another shot from my Eagle archives from 11-29-2008 on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. The Eagle had just successfully yanked a fish out of the river.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

I was going through some of my Eagle archives tonight and dug up this shot from 11-29-2008 on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. The Eagle had just successfully yanked a fish out of the river.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Susquehanna Life Magazine wanted to use one of my Eagle shots for their Summer 2010 edition of the magazine so I took the opportunity to redo the post processing on this shot. I wanted to make sure that the head was a lot less blown out and the water was a little better looking. It appears on page 36 of the magazine in their Mystic River photo essay.

God bless the RAW image file format and the ability it gives you to correct exposure issues two years after you took the shot. :–)

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Mother Bald Eagle tears off bits of fish and feeds it to her young Eaglet. She has two chicks in the nest. The other chick was further back and would pop it’s head up for a share of fish every so often. At this early age, the eaglets are totally reliant on Mother and Father for their nutritional needs.

Sometimes karma works in your favor. When I arrived at this spot in the Delaware Water Gap area of N.E. Pennsylvania, I sat my tripod down, made my settings on the camera based upon past visits to this nest and within 15 seconds (literally), the Mother Eagle flew in with a fish for the kids. Sometimes you wait all weekend for that sort of thing to happen and sometimes you wait 15 seconds. After feeding the kids, Mom hopped up on a branch which was obscured by evergreen leaves and the kids sank low in the nest. The Father was out and about and I never did see him while I was there. This is the same nest where I took this shot from last season. Mom had two chicks last year just like this season.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle jumps from one branch to another in order to get higher and further out over the Susquehanna River so that he can keep on eye on the fish and his Eagle competitors in the area. Taken in Maryland on Saturday 12-12-2009. This shot is a lot noisier than I would have liked but the bird was mostly in shadows when he jumped.

Things were pretty slow earlier in the day and just as we started to lose the good sunlight, all hell broke lose in the Eagle community and we were witness to a dozen different Eagle battles for fish. On two occasions, right over our heads in the parking lot, a chase between Eagles over a fish ended up with neither Eagle keeping the fish and the fish almost hitting parked cars in the lot. Though there wasn’t enough light over the parking area to photograph it, these battles were still a real privilege to be able to watch.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Juvenile Bald Eagle uses a banking maneuver over the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-29-2009.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle dives down and extends its talons into the water to grab a fish for breakfast out of the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-29-2009. It’s not often that you park your car, walk 50 feet across the parking lot, set up your tripod with the morning’s golden sun hitting the water right in front of you and within the first minute, get a series of shots like this. But I got very lucky last Sunday. Most days don’t start (or end) like that).

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Juvenile Bald Eagle “Sophie” sits in a tree after eating a fish caught on the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-22-2009. How do we know this is “Sophie” ? Well, according to the blue band around it’s right leg which identifies this as “S04″, a New York native that was born in a nest on Goodyear Lake in Milford, New York on May 18th, 2007. She was the only surviving chick from that nest during that breeding season. Sophie was a visitor to our section of the Susquehanna last migration season too. She likes to catch fish and sit out in the open in a tree near to the water’s edge which allows ample time to photograph her.

You can see photos of Sophie as a chick when she was banded by visiting this page and then scrolling down.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle carries away his lunch over the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-29-2009. I could not quite make out the tune the fish was whistling as he went by but it sounded vaguely like “fly me to the moon”.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle experiences failure during his first fishing attempt of the day on the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-22-2009. The fish, on the other hand, lived to swim another day and is probably thinking to himself…”what the hell was that ?!?!?!?!“.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle sits on a perch over the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-22-2009. I think he sat on this Sycamore branch for 1 1/2 hours and only took off after we all left in pursuit of other Eagle photographic opportunities further down stream.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Adult Bald Eagle rises up from the Susquehanna River after an unsuccessful fishing attempt. He just about flew up my right nostril he was so close. Taken in Maryland on Sunday 11-22-2009. People ask me why I get up at 4:00 AM during the migration season and drive 1 3/4 hours to Maryland every Saturday and Sunday and this is one of the reasons right here. :–)

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

Juvenile Bald Eagle soars over the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Saturday 11-21-2009.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.

To say that action over the Susquehanna River in Maryland on Sunday 11-15-2009 was slow, would be a great understatement. With water levels being way down, very few Eagles ventured close by to fish. This four year old (estimate) Bald Eagle captured a fish and flew back and forth before deciding on a route to a safe tree to eat it in. Luckily he gave us a good photo opportunity.

For more information on Bald Eagles, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.